Politics makes strange bedfellows, and the need for an electoral victory turns arch-enemies into fast friends. One of the best examples of this in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is the likely alliance between Swabhimani Paksha — the political outfit of the farmers’ body Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana — and the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party. As Paksha leader MP Raju Shetti cites ‘preservation of Constitutional ethos’ as the reason for the likely alliance, some leaders of his party may not find it easy to put aside years of political and ideological differences to forge such a tie-up. Which parties comprise the alliance? In order to stop the division of votes, the two main opposition parties in Maharashtra — NCP and Congress — have decided to form a pre-poll alliance. The two parties have made overtures to smaller parties, like the Swabhimani Paksha and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, the coalition of 12 smaller parties led by Prakash Ambedkar. Both the Swabhimani Paksha and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi have pockets of influence in the state, which can swing the results in multiple seats. To join the alliance, Shetti is seeking re-election from the Hatkanagale Lok Sabha seat in Kolhapur district for the third time, and has demanded two more seats: Wardha and Buldhana. When the demands were earlier met with a lukewarm response by state-level leaders, the party decided to fight the elections on its own. However, both NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress President Rahul Gandhi urged Shetti to be part of the opposition alliance, and promised to accede to his demand. On Thursday, during his address to the state executive of the Swabhimani Paksha, Shetti gave in-principle nod for the alliance, but only after a few conditions were fulfiled. Why does the Paksha need an alliance? During his speech, the farmer’s leader explained that the Swabhimani Paksha was going to join the alliance as many well-wishers of his party had advised him to do so. “The very idea of India and the Constitutional ethos . are under threat. In this hour of need, we must fight unitedly to preserve the same,” he said. Other party leaders, such as Satish Kakade, cited ground realities like the party’s lack of money and manpower. The Swabhimani Paksha, an unrecognised political party, doesn’t have a fixed symbol of its own. The party also needs dedicated workers and booth-level agents to ensure a candidate’s victory. Booth-level agents are, perhaps, the most important cogs in the election campaign machine. These grassroot workers not only man the polling booths, but also reach out to voters through their local contacts. On an average, it is necessary to have about 10 agents per booth on election day. Paksha leaders admit that even in Shetti’s constituency Hatkanagale, they don’t have that kind of manpower. Since 2004, the year Shetti was elected to the Legislative Assembly, his footsoldiers have also included those loyal to other parties, who have been drawn to him due to his personal charisma and his work among sugarcane farmers. An alliance with parties like Congress and NCP, which have ample funds and resources, is bound to help the Swabhimani Paksha in the long run. Political experts feel that if the Paksha forms an alliance with these political heavyweights and manages to field its candidate from Buldhana, the NCP and Congress’s political network will help the party candidate fare better. Why are party members apprehensive about the alliance? During the state executive meeting held in Pune on Thursday, several leaders opposed an alliance with the Congress and NCP. Leaders from Madha — the constituency in Solapur from where Pawar is expected to contest — want Shetti to fight the election from there. Party leaders said they could contest on their own from 15 Lok Sabha seats in the state. But, despite the fact that the Paksha has its own dedicated voter base, that might not be enough to get it elected, as Shetti and Kakade pointed out. The opposition by some party leaders, to an alliance with the Congress and NCP, stems from the long and often bitter history they share with these parties. Prahlad Ingole, the Nanded district president of Swabhimani Paksha, has been involved in a protracted legal battle against Congress state president Ashok Chavan. Other party leaders have also taken on powerful leaders of the NCP and Congress in their districts. Born out of a farmers’ struggle against cooperative sugar mills in western Maharashtra, the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana has traditionally been against the NCP and Congress as the leadership of the sugar mills invariably rested with leaders of the two parties. By his own admission, Shetti had earlier joined hands with the BJP-led NDA to unseat the NCP and Congress over their “anti-farmer” policies. “But the BJP proved to be worse than them and I had to withdraw my support,” said Shetti. While Shetti may have signalled a temporary truce, some leaders of the party may find it difficult to work with their former political foes. Shetti has given the green signal to his party leaders to carry out their fight for farmer’s rights. But it needs to be seen if the members of his party are able to temporarily bury the hatchet.
